Kevin Rowland, the cantankerous singer of Dexys Midnight Runners, was once asked why the band’s appearance changed so dramatically between each album. Rowland was not going to let this go easily, and asked the interviewer what he meant. The journalist explained that the band had dressed like extras from Scorsese’s Mean Streets on their first album, before transforming into a group of gypsies for their second album, Too-Rye-Ay, then into Brooks Brothers suits for their third. Rowland denied that the changes were dramatic. “They only seem dramatic to you, because you didn’t see what came in between,” he claimed.
Miles Davis’s music, and indeed his sense of style, was also undergoing dramatic changes in the late 1960s; one of the most important aspects of this new release – the second in Columbia’s Miles Davis bootleg series – is that it allows us to see the changes that took place between two of his landmark ‘fusion’ albums, In A Silent Way (recorded in February 1969), and the more angular and abstract Bitches Brew (August 1969).
It also allows us to here his great ‘lost’ quintet – featuring Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Chick Corea on keyboards, Dave Holland on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums – a line-up that never recorded a studio album, but was, according to Miles, “a really bad motherfucker.”
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Some of the key changes started to take place much earlier, back in the summer of 1967 – when saxophonist John Coltrane passed away. Having relied heavily on other members of his quintet, most notably Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis started to compose once more. In addition, he had noticed the effect of Joe Zawinul’s electronic keyboards on Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley’s band, and encouraged Herbie Hancock to experiment with electric piano on albums like Miles In The Sky (May 1968), even drafting in George Benson to play electric guitar.
Other members of Miles’s inner circle also started to bring their influence to bear. Drummer Tony Williams was influenced by the changes taking place in rock music, and started to change his style of playing, most notably on stage. Miles’s young wife, the young model and aspiring singer, Betty Mabry, also exerted a significant influence, turning him on to artists such as Sly and the Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix, and encouraging him to dress in a hipper style.
Finally, personnel changes also had an impact on Miles’s sound. Bass player Ron Carter was being offered regular work in New York, and made the decision to leave the band. He was replaced by an English musician, Dave Holland, who had impressed Davis on a tour of the UK in the summer of 1968. Chick Corea was also drafted in to replace Herbie Hancock, who was being offered more solo work – although it’s worth noting that Hancock continued to appear on Davis’s studio recordings – often alongside Corea.
By the time Davis entered the studio to record In A Silent Way in February 1969 – joined by John McLaughlin on guitar and Joe Zawinul on keyboards – all the pieces were in place for this important recording.
But the changes didn’t stop there. Tony Williams was in the process of forming a fusion band of his own, The Tony Williams Lifetime, a trio featuring John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ. Miles recruited Jack DeJohnette as his replacement, best known at that time for his work with the Charles Lloyd Quartet.
The new-look quintet made its debut at Duffy’s Tavern in Rochester, New York, in March 1969. Holland was closer in style to Scott LaFaro than Ron Carter, using his bass as a lead in its own right, rather than in a more supportive role. Corea had a more percussive style than his predecessor, Herbie Hancock, and was also interested in taking a more avant-garde approach. Last but not least, DeJohnette changed the rhythmic dynamics of the band, his more improvisational style suiting dovetailing with the new direction Miles was heading.
It soon became apparent that the band was keen to move away from the standards the previous quintet had tended to play in a live setting; at Duffy’s they played ‘Ginerbread Boy’ and ‘Footprints’ (both from 1966) and ‘Paraphernalia’ (1968), and in the weeks that followed, ‘Agitation’ (1966) and ‘Masqualero’ (1967) crept into the set. There was still room for the occasional standard, but soon they were abandoned altogether.
The music also became more abstract, more free – something that becomes apparent listening to Bitches Brew after the more restrained In A Silent Way. “When Chick and Dave were in the band, that’s what would happen when Miles stopped playing,” recalled DeJohnette. “The groove would stop and then we would go into a more abstract place, and Wayne would go with us. Miles enjoyed some of that, but he would come to me and say, ‘can’t you make them play some time?’ Chick and Dave would be off into abstract things.
By July, Miles had started to bring new music into the band’s repertoire – including ‘Miles Runs The Voodoo Down’ and ‘Sanctuary’, suggesting that these were ideas that had stemmed from playing with his new quintet – rather than simply emerging in the studio in August.
The final change I will note here was sartorial; gone are the suits and ties of the previous quintet (Live In Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1), replaced by scarves, flouncy shirts, and in the case of Dave Holland, a rather fetching cow-motif waistcoat.
So perhaps Kevin Rowland was right all along; change only seems sudden if we don’t see what comes in between. This valuable set – which consists of three CDs and a DVD – provides and invaluable insight into the changes taking place in Miles’s music at this time. Newcomers will be better off buying the original CDs that bookmark this set – In A Silent Way (*****) and Bitches Brew (****1/2). But for jazz fans, this is an essential purchase.
